The Materiality and Creation of Constructed Space at Etlatongo, Oaxaca, Mexico

Summary

This paper explores the ontological relationality between humans and the creation of space during the Cruz B phase (1200/1150-850 BC) in the late Early Formative Etlatongo, in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca. In particular, we focus on how the use of bedrock afforded the construction of a ‘lived’ place. By looking at the materiality of its intrinsic properties, we argue that the Mixtecs of Etlatongo intentionally used bedrock as part of construction episodes in the formation of a public space so that its symbolic properties were able to emerge with the building’s form and history. Considering that ethnographic accounts mention that Mixtecs understood reality as an indivisible whole animated with sacred life forces, we examine the ways in which this existential unity manifested during construction events and through the life histories of buildings; we link our Cruz B example with ethnographic practice through subsequent construction episodes at Etlatongo that illustrate the abiding interest in certain attributes of bedrock. Furthermore, we contemplate how the relational co-constitution of sediments, structures, and humans afforded the articulation of new relationships during the formation of Early Formative Etlatongo.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21067